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Monday, 15 December 2014

I get knocked down but I get up again

Last night I went
skiing. I skied for a while. Then I must have thought it was getting
boring with all that standing upright and getting some exercise and everything, so I fell down
to mix things up a little. Even though I'm such a expert skier
nowadays that I only fell down once, I am apparently also an expert
at injuring myself (shocking, I know) and I twisted my thumb when I
inadvertly landed on my ski pole.

This is an old picture and those are some old skis. I now obviously own expert skis.

Because I'm stupid
hardcore, I immediately jumped up and continued skiing. I can be
quite reserved and don't like drawing attention to myself by, say,
screaming in agony. I mean, other skiers might then have heard me and tried
to help me! Better to save myself some embarrassment and pretend that nothing happened.

The result of
continuing to ski with a twisted thumb became apparent when we got in
the car and I tried to drive. I couldn't wrap my hand around the
gear stick. Once we got home, I noticed the thumb was a little swollen. I
later spent an uneasy night trying to find a sleeping position where
my thumb didn't hurt, but the only position that matched that
description was on my back, and that was uncomfortable in so many
other ways that I wouldn't be able to get any sleep anyway.

I got my thumb x-rayed
this morning and got the all-clear. Nothing was broken and I was free
to leave. It had been a close call, the x-ray technician told me. As
I walked back to work from the hospital, it didn't feel like it had just been a close call. The thumb hurt just as much, I couldn't move
it more than a centimetre to any direction and it was now definitely more
swollen than it had been before.

A few things you can do with
a twisted thumb:

1. Put clothes on and take
them off (at least if someone's helping you with the buttons/zipper)
2. Eat (unless you have
more than a couple of grams of food on your fork/spoon, in which case
someone has to feed you help you lift the
fork/spoon)

3. Hold a pen (as long as
you don't try to write with it or stab yourself in the eye with
frustration at how handicapped the loss of the use of your thumb makes you feel)